all hearts

dr. aveline elliot | 34 | veterinarian

[avieelliot]

BASIC INFORMATION

Full Name: aveline rosemary fox-harker (changed her surname to elliot once she got to america)

Nickname: avie

Race: white

Ethnicity: french, german

Nationality: english (UK)

Age: 34

APPEARANCE & MANNERISMS

Hair: straight, chestnut brown, reaches her shoulders

Eyes: blue-grey on the outside, hazel around the irises (central heterochromia)

Skin: fair and smooth

Height: 5'2" (157cm)

Build: slender, soft

Scent: jasmine

Gait: leisurely pace, often stops to literally smell roses, or just stare at a pretty view

Clothing/Style: flowy lines, muted colours, soft fabrics (silk, cashmere)

Style of Speech: soft, light voice, but commanding. like you know you’re supposed to stop and listen.

Key Possessions: she has very little attachment to material things. her dogs are her life.

CITIZENSHIP

Social Status: well liked, but little known

Occupation: veterinarian / sanctuary owner

Education: Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree

Residence: a quaint little apartment in a century home

PERSONALITY

Likes: animals, nature, good food, good wine, good conversation, walks in the woods, quiet meditation, stargazing

Dislikes: instability, dishonesty, greed, money, power, being told what to do

Hobbies: working at the animal sanctuary, volunteering at shelters, reading

Personality Summary: kind, altruistic, nurturing, guarded, stubborn, afraid

RELATIONSHIPS

Friends/Allies: TBD

Enemies/Rivals: Alessandro Di Natale, her ex-husband, most men.

Family: estranged from her disinterested parents and her long-lost brother

Romantic Interest: TBD

Pets: three rescue dogs, named Flora (a golden), Fauna (a husky mix), and Merryweather (english bulldog)

BIOGRAPHY

tw: child neglect

Nothing in Aveline’s life has ever been particularly stable, but the one comforting constant in her childhood was everyone always insisting that everything was completely fine. Her parents, devastated to be born a decade or two late to the hippie movement, dove headfirst into 80’s political activism - violence in the name of peace, or something along those lines. He went by Barkley Fox, she went by Buttercup Harker. They met during a riot, and they never slowed down.

Aveline herself was… a surprise, to say the least. Her parents were young and wild and free, but not quite smart enough to realize a child would change that. Or rather, that a child should change that. It didn’t change much for Buttercup and Barkley, who brought tiny Aveline to riots with them, smiling for the photojournalists, and reassuring nosy child welfare workers that everything was, as always, completely fine.

Sure, sometimes they forgot to pick her up from school until the sun had set, and they went on “vacations” to war zones, and she saw much more than any ten year old child should see the time they couldn’t find a babysitter and brought her to the Filthy Lucre tour. And yeah, maybe sometimes they went out and didn’t feed her, or they tried to cure infections with leaves and tree bark, or she missed a couple months of school here and there… but everything was fine, they had it all under control. She was a free spirited child, like them.

Needless to say, everything was not completely fine. Aveline wasn’t fine. She was lonely, and scared, and small. She was forgotten about by the people who were supposed to love her most. The only reason she ever learned what real love was, is because her grandmother (with whom her parents would often drop her for undisclosed amounts of time) had an animal sanctuary.

The animals were hurt. Wounded birds, orphaned squirrels, that kind of thing. They were small, and scared, and lonely. Forgotten about by most of the world. Aveline’s previously unused heart filled up with the love of these tiny helpless creatures, and she found her calling.

When she was eleven, another tiny helpless creature was dropped in Aveline’s lap. His name was Elliot Fox-Harker - her new baby brother. Their parents didn’t know what to do with him any more than they’d known what to do with her. But she was old enough to babysit now, they decided. So they left their oldest child alone to parent their infant. Avie was overwhelmed, and even more scared than before. Somehow, she kept Elliot alive - with the help of their brilliant grandmother. But she was a baby herself, and their grandmother was blind, and it took three years before anyone noticed that Elliot couldn’t hear them. He was deaf.

Aveline was fifteen then. She knew what she had to do. She called the NSPCC Helpline and reported her own parents for child endangerment. The people who came to rescue her brother ripped him, screaming, from her arms, and though she knew she’d done the right thing, to this day, she can’t escape the guilt of that. Elliot was the only person in the world who loved her and needed her, and she let him down. She loved him as much as she resented their parents, so when she moved to America, she changed her last name for him.

She was sent to live with family in Brooklyn, and really struggled to finish high school there. The distraction of her guilt and sadness mixed with the combined years of school she’d missed in her tumultuous childhood meant she was constantly behind... but she put all of her time and energy into studying. The other students in New York were interested in her - they saw her as a mystery of a person with a pretty face and a cute accent, and were fascinated - but she couldn’t relate to any of them. They wanted her to go to parties and pep rallies, but the only person she found herself relating to at all was the weird quiet kid with his walkman on.

After graduation, she went back to England and studied veterinary medicine in London, almost reaching the top of her class. Almost. Top 5%, anyway. But it was an incredible achievement for someone who statistically shouldn’t have survived childhood. She was on top of the world when she graduated... until she realized that she had no idea where to go from there. She was entirely alone in, and besides wanting to be a vet and not wanting to think about her family, she’d never had any real plans. Her mind reeled with images of herself turning into her parents - lost and forever wandering - and she panicked… until she met The One.

He was American - the CEO of his own company, a self-made man. He was gorgeous and charming and driven and best of all: he was stable. She figured the best decision she could make in her life would be to find someone who craved the same stability and authenticity she needed, and to be a team. The exact opposite of her parents. So when he proposed, she said yes.

And when every red flag in the world popped up and waved itself in her face, she smiled, went to work, and constantly insisted that everything was… completely fine.

She had a job she loved, her own veterinary practice in Portland, Maine, a big goofy dog named Flora, and what she thought was real love. She was happy. All the warning signs and nagging thoughts were just echoes of her parents’ voices telling her she needed to be free, and she shouldn’t tie herself down. She wouldn’t listen. She didn’t listen. For seven years, she went through the motions, comatose, hibernating, putting up with more bullshit from him than even her parents could carry. Then one day he came home from a business trip. He’d barely set his bags down when she said it.

“I know you don’t love me. And I know you never really did.”

She was talking to him, but she also saw her parents as she said it.

Everything broke, then. He broke, she broke, the walls that they’d both been carefully building, the personas they’d been curating, all of it, just crashed to the ground with a violent, angry, thunderous bang.

She tried to move on. After the divorce finalized, she tried to have hope, and to try again to find the stable, true, safe Forever Love she still believed was out there. She met a beautiful boy named Alessandro, reeling from heartbreak himself, and thought that maybe this time it could last. He made her feel beautiful, and wanted, for the first time, really, ever... and then he broke her heart.

She gave up entirely after that. She moved to Boston with Flora, adopted two more dogs (Fauna and Merryweather) and poured herself once again into work and nothing else. The animals were the only important thing - they could bite her, but they couldn’t break her heart. She was kind to people, but kept them at a distance, not willing to risk falling into the trap of love again.

Earlier this year, she was offered a job at Familiar Friend Veterinary Clinic, and moved to Salem. She’s has opened her own animal sanctuary for hurt/abandoned pets and wildlife in the area, and has even ventured to make a friend or two. She’s wounded, but in rehabilitation, and she’s sure she’ll fly again soon.

[avieelliot]

[intimateorcheesy]

you don’t want him back but you still feel a pit in your stomach when you catch a glimse of his face on a stranger. you don’t want him back but your heart still races whenever someone mentions his name. you don’t want him back but you wonder if he will ever return. you don’t want him back but you dream of what to do if he did. you don’t want him back but you wonder what if he never left. you don’t want him back but if he still wanted you, you probably, maybe, would change your mind.

it’s 3am, and i still think of you. (via intimateorcheesy)

@theocrmchl

[deviika]

—Chris Mc Geown

[avieelliot]

theocrmchl​:

The children are left with a reputable baby sitter — or one that has the highest rating on care dot com. Under normal circumstances, Theo wouldn’t even dare leave them with a stranger, but desperate times call for desperate measures and if he wants a chance at becoming their actual guardian, he has to step his game up when it comes to Aveline. And so he searches for her in town, and by happenstance, figures out that she’s in an animal sanctuary of all places.

A doting wife catering to the needs of animals? Hand delivered to the right judge and he’ll be signing the forms to have his niece and nephew in his full custody in no time. No longer will he have to worry in wee hours of the night of someone coming in and taking them. He’ll have the law on his side at that point.

But first — .

Roses wrapped in parchment and cellophane are in one hand as he enters the establishment. Her voice rings familiarity and he waits for her to turn her attention to him before he brandishes the bouquet. “I don’t want you to leave me alone,” he says. “In fact, leaving seems to be the biggest problem between us.” Just like that. No hi, hello, sorry for signing the divorce papers. Theo gets straight to it.

.

Salem was full of ghosts, they said. Witches, and dark magic, and curses. Aveline didn’t believe in any of that. A side effect of believing in nothing, anymore. After everything she’d gone through in her life, it was going to take more than a bump in the night to scare her.

But this... 

Avie turned the corner into the lobby of her animal shelter - her happy place - her sanctuary for wounded creatures to heal, and to feel safe, and to find homes - and stopped as though she’d run into a brick wall. She turned white as a sheet, and her stomach twisted, and her heart didn’t stop, it just ceased to exist.

It took entirely too long before she could even form words in her mind, let alone speak them aloud, but when she did it was a hiss, as she tried to kill him with her eyes.

“What the fuck are you doing here?”

[avieelliot]

paigetaylorking​:

“Can I meet them both?” Paige asked. And that was a dangerous thing to ask. She hadn’t come in for one dog but had already determined she’d be leaving with one… but two? She was risking it all. But then again that’s who she was as a person. “Yeah I want to meet them both.” In the end, her dog would need a friend to keep them company while she was at work. Perfect logic in her mind.

.

Avie hesitated - it was always difficult for her to trust people enough to take one of her babies home (she shouldn’t think of them as her babies, but it was very difficult not to), much less two. But if she determined this woman would make a good pet parent, why shouldn’t she be able to handle two?

“Well... they are already good friends, actually. So that’s lucky. Like I said, one of them is a lot more energetic than the other, but they’d balance each other well, I think. The first one is Daisy, she’s in her kennel, just this way,” she said, leading the woman down the hall to the dogs’ rooms. When they got to Daisy’s door (you could tell because there was a giant construction-paper Daisy on it, made by one of the volunteers’ kids), Avie went on her tiptoes to look through the window. Daisy was lying down on her little bed, but she saw Avie’s head pop up and her tail started wagging.

“Oh, she’s up,” Avie smiled, opening the door to the little room to let the woman through. “You can go in and meet her. She gets overwhelmed by too many humans sometimes, so I’ll go and get Duke for you while you get to know each other, okay?”

[avieelliot]

chloeeli​:

The puppy was all to cute and trusting for Chloe to believe there was even a possibility he was a life long stray. Though, she couldn’t deny that a small part of her hoped that he wasn’t so she could turn around and take him home. Apartment fees be damned, he was adorable, and was deserving of a good home. “I have to say, it was quite the moral dilemma. But, it’s the right thing to do, so I had to put my feelings aside.” She glanced from the puppy to the woman, and nodded. “Yeah, I’d like to stick around if that’s alright.” She had bonded with the dog at this point, and she wanted to know if he was going home to a safe, warm bed or not that evening. If not, Chloe knew she’d be taking care of it herself whether or not it was the most responsible choice. 

.

“Yeah, that’s definitely alright. I’m alone here entirely too often, I could honestly use someone to talk to that isn’t a dog,” she smirked. “Dogs are great listeners, though. Cats not so much. I’m Aveline, by the way. What’s your name?”

She led the happy puppy and the girl who’d rescued him back to an exam room, and found the scanner in a drawer. It was a little green rectangle with a display that looked vaguely like a calculator from the 90s, but it did the job. She placed the pup on the table, and scratched under his cute little chin. “Okay, baby, sit still for me, yeah?” 

The dog, however, did not want to sit still, and his whole little body wagged along with his tail. Laughing, she turned to the woman behind her, “Could you give him some scratches for me? This’ll be easier if he isn’t dancing around.”

[avieelliot]

alessandrodinatale​:

There was a brief moment where everything felt like it had landed in a balance where what had transpired between them in Maine had disappeared without a trace. For a moment he wondered what would it have been like if they had gotten a redo, if a simple hello and pleasantries could have just simply been that? But then Aveline pulled her hand away and Aless tried not to notice the emptiness his own hand felt at that moment. Instead, he opted to let his hand retreat back into his pockets where they clenched. 

“Hi right back to you,” Aless offered softly, before he shuffled his feet and cleared his throat. “Yes, she’s due for her annual.” Stella let out the softest mew, which prompted Aless to set her carrier on the surface of the front desk so then she could see him. He offered her his pointer finger to rub up against for comfort. “You’ll be fine here, cara mia.” Aless assured the cat, before he looked back over at Aveline. “Uh, is it okay if I follow you back to the exam room? I wasn’t sure how this…was going to work.” 

.

The love in his eyes and his voice and his touch when he spoke to his beautiful animal made it very difficult for Aveline to hate him. He’d spoken to her like that once... he’d even called her cara mia... at least he probably meant it with the cat. Avie picked up the pieces of her melting heart, fastened the lock around it again, straightened her posture, and nodded at his question.

“Yes, that should be fine. I’ll need to ask you a few questions anyway, while I start the physical examination,” she said. “This is my first time meeting miss Stella, though, so I would like to help her feel comfortable with me, with no distractions, if you don’t mind. Follow me,” she said, turning on her heel to walk toward the exam room.

[avieelliot]

cassiekato​:

Cassie had bought Pax dog food but they delivered the wrong kind. Told her to take it to a sanctuary to donate it and they would send her new food. So she lugged the bag of dog food with her and opened the door. Heading up to the counter she waited for the person to walk out. Once she saw them she smiled.  “Hi, none of that. They sent me the wrong dog food for my dog and I just wanted to donate it here. Is that okay?” She asked. 

.

“That’s more than okay, that’s wonderful! ...Not that they sent you the wrong kind, but that you’re donating it here. I really appreciate it, and the pups will too,” she beamed, taking the heavy bag from the woman’s arms. She could never explain how much donations meant to her, even when they were out of apparent necessity like this one. She ran the shelter on her own, so anything that wasn’t donated, or couldn’t be bought with donated funds, came out of her own pocket. It was worth it, but she always appreciated the help.

“What breed is your dog?”

[avieelliot]

isabelusmani​:

-

Is that what Haz wanted? Someone humble, someone unaware of their own beauty, someone soft in ways she no longer was.  Her mind swirled with reasons why her husband wanted anyone, but her. The alcohol already blending into her blood stream opened the rabbit hole. God, insecurity didn’t suit her well. The green monster felt funny underneath her skin. Still, she smiled with not a sliver of reality pouring through for the woman to see. “Aveline.” Isabel repeated, taking the card in her own hand. 

Her eyes scanned her name a few times as she pinched the thick paper in between her pointer and index finger. “I guess not.” She shrugged, turning back to the bar as the bartender brought over their shots. “So tell me, Aveline, what brings you to Salem?” Holding out one of the glasses for the other woman, she figured all of this would be easier the drunker she was. 

.

“A job brought me here,” she smiled. “I wish it were a more interesting story, really. But I was in Boston, and the job here paid enough that I could afford to open a shelter, which I just did last month. Cheers,” she said, downing the shot easily, only scrunching her nose a little bit as it burned her throat. That part was the worst, but the instant calming of the static in her mind was worth it.

“What about you? Are you from around here?”

[baddestbitchesglobal]

[baddestbitchesglobal]

[9710144]

[avieelliot]

@jackgerard​

[lilpieceofmyworld]

[avieelliot]

haz-usmani​:

**

Aveline Elliot could best be described as tiny, acerbic Brit with a chip on her shoulder, and it surprised Haz just how much he liked that about her. Maybe six months ago they would have had nothing in common, but now he found his few fleeting moments of contentment happened most often in her presence. It was a friendship built on misery, which sounded desperate and depressing, but there was comfort in sharing a bone-deep sorrow with someone who needed no words to explain it. 

There was also, he found, a safety in sharing it with someone who had never known Abe and who didn’t know Isabel - an anonymity where he could share his grief in his own words, without it being tainted by others. It felt like… space, when he was slowly being suffocated. 

It was fitting, then, looking up at the big, dark sky, and he took a deep breath just to remind himself he was alive. “Growing up, we were told not to wish on stars. No one but Allah could control our fate. I don’t think I could ever believe in it - wishes being granted by stars - but I like the ritual of it. Last summer, there was a meteor shower, and we took Abe out camping so he could see them. He was convinced he could make separate wish for every star he saw.” 

.

Avie nodded, as she thought about it. Her talks with Father Jack had been the closest she’d ever come to religion, but it fascinated her. It made sense, in a way - this part of it, at least. If you were a god, and you’d created all the world and all the universe and everything in it, and then the little people you’d made started attributing your blessings to stars, of all things. You’d be a bit upset yourself. 

"Now I’m just imagining an all-powerful deity getting jealous of a star,” she said, smiling a little. “I’m not sure it’s the star that grants the wish. Just reminds you to make one. It’s like a little signal light, telling you that it’s okay to ask for something. To have a little hope, just for a moment.”

She looked over at Haz, unable to even begin to imagine his pain. The little boy she mourned for was - as far as she knew - still alive somewhere. It was an altogether different kind of grief. But she figured it was probably helpful for both of them to remember the happy times, and try to be grateful for those. 

“See? Abe got it. He was absolutely right, if you ask me. Every star is a wish,” she said, looking back up at the endlessness above them. “Doesn’t mean they’ll all come true. But we can hope.” It was quiet for a moment, as she pondered what hope was even worth. “What do you hope for now? If you could... let yourself hope for something. What do you see?”

[avieelliot]

tonylyckholm​:

Location: edge of Salem, by the water Time: little bit past midnight  Status: open 

This was the first place he’d found following his move to Salem. A little nook between the woods and the water, away from the town and its lights, noise, and people. There were the occasional wanderers looking for a place to smoke or hookup, but he hadn’t minded so much as it was an unspoken rule out here to keep it down and mind your own fucking business. That, and at that point he would already be well on his way to a level of calm where he couldn’t get too upset. 

Tony had been sitting on the hood of his Jeep, nursing the blunt between his fingers, listening to the palpitating flow of the tide. His mind had finally gone quiet after an entire day spent with a strained neck, a few drunk and unruly customers, and thinking about a woman he’d seen a few days ago walking ten dogs early morning whom he felt he’d seen before and knew but couldn’t place when or who for the life of him. Everybody and everything just needed to shut up for a minute. And things had been going nice and quiet — till now. Bright lights illuminated the otherwise nearly black of the night and trees, coupled with the sound of crunching gravel, and hands instinctively went up to cover his eyes. The sudden flashing momentarily pierced his temples. His first thought was that it was the cops, but there were no other colors he could make out save for white. 

“Turn off your fuckin’ headlights,” Tony bellowed out. 

.

Someplace quiet. Maybe that was what she needed. And not the artificial kind, like the way her house creaked late at night when the dogs were snoring, or like the ‘soothing music’ Milo played in their yoga classes. Actual silence, where all the sounds were made by the air or the water or her own feet in the gravel.

It was late, and being a woman going out for a walk past midnight was never ever a good idea, but she had to get out. Of her house, of her thoughts. Sitting by the water would help. She’d bring pepper spray, if that would do anything.

But before she could even get out of the car, her plans were dashed. Some cranky old man was shouting about her headlights, as though she’d purposely invented them just to annoy him tonight. She could have left; found someplace actually quiet without angry shouting men... but shouting seemed therapeutic too, right now, so she did as he asked, shut off her car, and got out.

“Dunno if you’ve thought of this, in your obviously inebriated state,” she shouted, all but slamming the car door behind her, “but a person does actually need headlights in order to drive at night. Would you have me crash into you? Is that preferable?”

[avieelliot]

when was the last time you were truly happy?

There was a moment where she thought everything would be fine. She was still reeling from her divorce, but she'd found someone new, who made her feel beautiful, and made her feel like she was worth something. She loved the way he saw the world, like everything had potential. And the moment of free fall before everything crashed again... that was the last time she was really happy.

( @alessandrodinatale )